SAN FRANCISCO — A Bruce-Mahoney game that began with the annual reminder of sportsmanlike conduct ended with the players and coaches from both teams needing to be separated by school administrators after coming face-to-face at midfield.
St. Ignatius controlled the game just as it has the rivalry that dates back beyond 1900, and Wildcats players wanted to celebrate their 23-14 win with a photo on the field. They shook hands with their foes from Sacred Heart Cathedral, rushed back to their sideline and then toward midfield.
That’s when the Fightin’ Irish took exception.
While St. Ignatius coach JuJuan Lawson said the postgame photo on the field is a tradition for the winning team, his counterpart on the Sacred Heart Cathedral sideline, Antoine Evans, said the way they went about it was “totally unprofessional.”
“Some bickering happened, some argument happened, they said some stuff, we said some stuff,” Lawson said. “It’s a rivalry for a reason.”
Historically, the rivalry has been one-sided, with St. Ignatius claiming 16 of 22 matchups since 2004 and more than two-thirds of their 103 total meetings. If there was ever a time for Sacred Heart Cathedral to steal one, it was this year, with both teams entering the final week of the regular season 2-4 in West Catholic Athletic League play.
St. Ignatius, however, opened a 17-0 lead by halftime and didn’t let the Irish get within a score after senior quarterback Caedon Afsharipour put them up 10-0 late in the first quarter with his first of two eventual touchdown passes. Afsharipour checked down to his running back, junior Luke Tribolet, who streaked down the sideline 34 yards into the end zone with 1:38 to play in the opening quarter.
Afsharipour added a 59-yard touchdown heave on third-and-6 to senior receiver Zui Shelton, who got free behind the defense and was waiting for the deep ball when it arrived near the goal line. The quarterback finished with 165 yards through the air and used his legs to pick up a pair of first downs.
“He’s worked a long, hard road to get to this moment,” Lawson said of his quarterback, who he has coached since he was 10 years old. Afsharipour, however, only transferred back into the program this year from Marin Catholic and spent the first half of the season dealing with injuries.
“I mean, it’s an awesome win,” said Afsharipour, who wasn’t sacked once. “The dudes did an awesome job preparing tonight. We’re not looking for this to be the highlight, though. We want to keep going. But this one is totally sweet.”
The highlight of Afsharipour’s night didn’t involve any pass that left his hands but rather the one that he hauled in — adding a third touchdown to his stat line to go up 23-14 early in the third quarter. With the ball at the 11-yard line, Lawson dialed up a trick play the team had been practicing since July.
Its name? “CMC,” Lawson said. “For Christian McCaffrey.”
Afsharipour handed the ball off for what looked to be a sweep, but he took off for the end zone and the running back pitched the ball back to senior receiver Jake Batchelder, who threw a strike to Afsharipour past the pylons.
“I didn’t think I would ever do that; I couldn’t believe I even made it to the pylon,” Afsharipour said. “Jake threw me an awesome ball. I get the touchdown, but there are so many guys that make that play happen.”
Defensively, St. Ignatius allowed SHC’s senior running back Legend Williams to break off a first-down run for 10 yards on his first handoff of the night, then contained him to nothing but incremental gains until time was already winding down. Williams, who needed 184 yards to reach 1,000 for the season, finished with 91.
The Wildcats also forced two interceptions from senior quarterback Michael Sargent, both into the hands of senior Ty Hicks.
“You change the look consistently and you do it well, it makes for a hard day for him. That’s all we were hoping for,” Lawson said of Sargent, who completed 5 of 6 passes on SHC’s opening drive of the second half to cut the deficit to 17-6. “You’re not going to stop him; you only hope to slow him down. He’s a great player at the end of the day.”
Sacred Heart Cathedral was ranked higher in the Bay Area News Group’s latest poll and was favored by HSRatings.com.
When it comes to the Bruce-Mahoney matchup, however, “we know you throw the records out the window,” Evans said.
“In this game, anything happens. As a coach, you try to approach this game even-keeled and try to get your guys to stay focused. We made some key mistakes, they made some big plays, and you see the result. I told my guys, it’s tough. But we can’t let this define us. We’ve got to move forward. We’ve got a game next week.”
